If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

one reviewer here said Quaid "channeled" Jerry Lee...problem is, Jerry, still very much with us, thankfully, in 1989, was busy nursing a fifth of Bourbon at his club in Memphis > especially since JLL insisted on recording the soundtrack himself, no Quaid in imitation, there is no need for any mystical transference.having said all that...this film is okay for the young, or those who just want to enjoy the music and get an "idea" of his career, say from 1956 to 1966.Quaid's portrayal is (teenage) letter thin, Lee Lewis a real wild child who goes on impulse 24-7. no deep thinker...not the genius who found a way to reconcile musically, gospel and pop. he marries his 13 year old 2nd cousin because... he can. any thought about how a 23 year old can actually be *in love* with someone so young? no...he's just rockin' up a storm! I did enjoy the portrayals of Sun Record Owner and Music Visionary Sam Phillips' Brother Judd and Jerry Lee's cousin Jimmy (Reverend Jimmy Swaggart). production numbers look like MTV rejects.

The events that stopped the first wave of Rock n' Roll......Elvis went into the army...Buddy Holly died...Chuck Berry got arrested...Little Richard quit and became a man of the cloth...and Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 year old cousin. This film is a fun-filled, rocking, over-the-top, snazzy, story of the "Killer". It never lets up on the music (all original performances by Jerry Lee) and the cast is doing nothing more than having a good time with it all. A few 50's style insertions of some "song and dance" numbers work magnificently.During the downfall, which is presented honestly and somberly we understand the devastation and effect on all involved. But just like Lewis himself, it rebounds with guts and gusto and never misses a color saturated beat.No one ever put out those great balls of fire, he played it hard and he played it forever."I can play anything, anytime, anywhere" says Jerry......ain't it the truth.

It's hard to believe that this film at the time had Jerry Lee's blessing. (Although he later said he hated it.) He helped Quaid to learn his "pumping" piano style and Jerry Lee did the real singing much like Ray Charles did for "Ray". Quaid's performance is the worst of his career. He's nothing like Jerry Lee. Also Ryder looks too old to be his 13 y/o cousin. I think she was maybe 17 at the time. Now Waylon Payne in "Walk the Line" doing his own singing on "Lewis Boogie" coupled with his wonderful rant in the car about how they're all going to hell... That captured more of the real Jerry Lee Lewis spirit then this whole film. They should get Payne and do a new Jerry Lee movie.

This is quite possibly the worst performance of Dennis Quaid's career. The rubber-faced mugging he does neither looks like Jerry Lee nor does the phony "voice" he uses during this performance. His lip-syncing is always just a half-beat behind the music. Although Dennis had the wavy hair like The Killer, it wasn't long enough in the back to look like Jerry. His acting was a farce when he'd throw back his head in an apparent attempt to look arrogant. He failed. Alec Baldwin is also not very believable as Jimmy Swaggart (I actually knew the man in my youth). The storyline was okay but it could not overcome Quaid's awful acting. Especially at the airport when they are leaving England and he tells England to kiss his ass. Dennis, why did you sink so low?